My word to meditate on through the month of July has been Joy. I looked forward to a happy month, especially after the deep sadness of losing our little Shadow in May.

But wouldn’t you know it! Joy got kicked to the side the very first week of the month! I was completely broadsided and blindsided. The only way Joy has been able to rise is to wait upon Him.

There are opportunities for every single one of us to be hurt or offended, confused by a person’s words or actions towards us. We second guess our relationship, and more often than not, it is simple oversight on the behalf of the other party.

But it is also something more…

A friend recently shared these words with me, “we need to ask ourselves what meaning or judgment do we attach to the particular hurt or offense. What is the story we tell ourselves based on our own issues? When we can identify with that, we can work towards becoming unoffendable.”

Her words become life changers when we realize none of the names we call ourselves is found in the Beloved. We are His Beloved, no longer rejected and cast aside. We are sons and daughters of the King of Glory and when we choose to hide and find ourselves in Him, reminding ourselves of Whose we are, Joy once again takes the front seat.

I am completely accepted and wholly loved and it matters not what may or may not have been said behind my back. We are His completely, one with Him, united with Him because we are reconciled with Him.

The glory of the Lord is our Rear Guard and because our lives are in Him, the pain of (possible) hurtful words and actions first must go through Him. He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation and instead of opting to go with our feelings, how much better it would be if we stood in our calling and worked towards reconciliation.

United, one with Him = no divisions.

And Him? He has already forgiven the (perceived) offending party and so must we.

So, rather than only the one word “Joy”, I hold in my heart these days, a prayer asking God to create in me a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within me.

I’m asking for a heart that has been cleansed of all pain, offense, hurt, anger, bitterness, rejection and most of all to keep me from striking back or initiating a conversation while I am still hurt and angry.

I long for my spirit to bear no bruises and to only bear the mark of love. Blood stained and washed whiter than snow I am able to hold my peace and allow the Lord to work behind the scenes and in the depths of my heart.

In the waiting He is revealing truth and wise strategies as well as giving me the perseverance to be patient as I wait for the right time to initiate a difficult conversation by planting seeds of love.

Peace is one of the few things the Lord has said we are to “hold or keep”. Jesus has told us that if we want to save our lives we must lose them and somehow in that mess of emotions He wants us to be still and hold our peace.

The reason is because He wants to fight for us and show Himself strong on our behalf.

When we run into the High Tower, we run to Jehovah Shalom and He envelopes us in Peace, in Himself.

I choose to submit to Him as an act of worship, as an act of my will despite the fact that my flesh wants to go after retribution. I must continue to hold my peace and I am strengthened and encouraged by the promise of God going to bat for me.

Joy doesn’t have to be kicked to the side when a hurtful situation arises if we choose obedience to the Lord.

In His hands are power and might; In His hands it is to make great and to give strength to all and I thank Him and praise Him for His glorious Name and all the attributes which that Name denotes. I am safe in Him, strengthened and upheld by His grace.

When we are in relationship with Jesus Christ, New Year resolutions have nothing on the revelations He can and will share with our hearts.

Often it seems those resolutions we make at the beginning of every year are just made to be broken! We make resolutions in the hope that we can be better, and do better and live a life that is better than the previous year. We want growth in our inward character but growth cannot come through worldly resolutions. Change and growth in our inward character come about because of revelations in the heart.

Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.I Peter 1:13 Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

To ‘bind’ is to ‘gird’ up something. When we gird up the loins of our minds, we are binding our minds to the Word of God.

Jesus said ‘whatever we bind and loose’. ‘Whatever’ does not stipulate only something in particular, it is embracing everything. Jesus said binding and loosing is a key to living in the kingdom of heaven. Don’t we all want to live out the righteousness, peace and joy that characterize the kingdom of heaven? Don’t we make resolutions in the hope that we have a greater hope, peace and joy in our daily lives?

What we need for lasting change is relationship with Jesus Christ and ears to hear the revelations He shares with us as we lay His word before our eyes and lay His word down in our hearts.

We use the word ‘whatever’ today in a careless, flippant fashion and I don’t believe that is how Jesus used it here. He is giving us the opportunity to bind the weakness of our own natural traits to the strength and power of that which is supernatural and stronger than we are. Being bound we are able to rest in the power of God and lean upon His greater strength.

We are His workmanship, the unique and delightful work of His hands, birthed from the Incorruptible Seed of the Spirit of God. God has recreated us in Christ Jesus for good works, a good purpose and He has already prepared everything necessary in order for us to walk in these good works.

Our responsibility is to loose ourselves from our own selfish ideas and unformulated thoughts and bind ourselves to the Path which is the Way of the Lord. We bind our thoughts to His Word. We loose unruliness from our hearts and bind ourselves to His heart.

We loose ourselves from lack of vision, bind our sight to His sight, and see the path He has laid out for us to walk. With our natural sight bound to His, the eyes of our heart clearly see the specific good works He has planned for us to walk out and walk in.

We loose ourselves from feelings of failure and unworthiness and bind ourselves to the plans and purposes God has for us. We bind ourselves to the sufficiency of the grace He has for us and give thanks that His power is made perfect in our weakness.

We loose ourselves from the capabilities, pride and ability of flesh and self, bind ourselves to the power of Christ, and make room for His power to rest upon us.

We loose our flesh and mind from laziness and lethargy and bind ourselves to what Jesus has laid hold of for us. We press on and in so we may lay hold of the promises of God. We bind our minds to the process of forgetting those things which are behind. We loose our painful memories and bind them to the truths of God`s Word. The blood has made us clean and we have been completely forgiven.

Because we know we have been set free we can actively pursue the pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.

Join me as we thank our Father for truth, for enduring truth which never changes or fails.
Thank you Lord, that when we bind ourselves to Your truth we are guaranteed to prosper in what we put our hands to.

We are today, putting our hands to the plow in expression of our obedience to You.
You never cease to lead us in truth and righteousness and are forever faithful to see that goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.

The testimony of our lives crowned with goodness and mercy is surely the lasting legacy we, Your children will leave.

Have you learned that Peace, overwhelming peace floods your soul when you keep your mind focused on

the attributes of God?

the character of God?

the promises of God?

Peace is a love gift from the Father and it belongs to us. The Holy Spirit indwells us and peace is a result of His presence within our hearts.

Love, Joy, Peace – these are gifts from the Holy Spirit. Precious gifts to help us live lives of love and abundance. Lives focused on loving God and seeking first His Kingdom matter so much to Him.

Peace is a settled assurance in our souls about a matter. In Galatians 5, Peace follows after Joy. When we receive Joy, we also experience Gladness in our souls. We are no longer striving to hold onto momentary, fleeting moments of happiness. Gladness settles down deep in our soul and keeps our outlook focused on the work of the Cross. Gladness protects us from despair and depression too!

Are you familiar with the feelings of silence from Heaven, that Your Father is busy doing something else and not paying attention to you?

Listen and hear what is beyond the silence, hear what He is speaking to your heart into the fabric of your days….Hear the sound of Heaven…

I walk with you in companionship. Good friends do not always need to communicate with words, the strength of their friendship lies in the comfort of their periods of silence.

They are so in tune with one another they know each other’s thoughts, they feel one another’s pain and share in each other’s joy!

Friends walk united; they walk as one, not needing the flow of words between them. So it is My child, with you and Me.

I know you completely and walk with you in the intimacy of that knowledge.

I am loving you and I am pleased with you. I love the way you love and desire to walk in step with Me, wanting to catch every Word My lips may form. You come so close that you hear the beating of My heart. You hear the sound of Heaven in My comforting and familiar Voice.

I will help you find comfort in the knowledge that in the place close to My heart words are not always necessary. In that place is deep and abiding trust and friendship, a place of perfect peace and comfortable companionship. When you are snuggled up next to My heart, all striving ceases and you enter into My rest.

I was silent with Abraham for fourteen years and I called Abraham the friend of God. I was silent and in that silence, keen hearing was developed. You too can hear what is beyond the silence.

Because of the Cross, things are different now and My Spirit dwells within you, you are My resting place, your heart is where I have chosen to dwell.

The instruments in the Temple were overlaid with refined, pure gold.

Living in you, I overlay you. I make you to be a child who is purified and refined and the glory of My life within you causes you to shine and be radiant, pure and holy.

You and I working together as one because you have chosen to allow yourself to be a vessel of honor for glorious purposes. It is also your choices and desires that set the pace of our walk.

I am always right here with you and I am always forging the life within you even as iron sharpens iron.

I walk with you in companionship. I love you, I affectionately fashioned you with My very own hands! I am not trying to make you into someone else nor do I want you to be like any of My other children, save for My character and nature being manifested through your life.

Each of you is unique and special to Me. Though some of your giftings may be the same, the way you move in them are unique to each person.

The yielded heart of love and surrender attracts Me to your side. The yielded heart of love and surrender is what I see in you.

If you all operated the same way, your giftings would create a cacophony of noise to Me. Each of you is an instrument in My symphony, each of you, when yielded to Me allow Me to produce the music.

There are periods of rest in music, enjoy those times, enjoy the stillness within My Presence for there you shall know I AM. I AM yours completely in the silence.

There is nothing I withhold from you. I am building your walls of precious stones, I am building you and pouring into you so there will be no cracks. I am fitting you into the specific places I want you to be. Yes, I have specific places for you to be, do not look around dissatisfied wanting the set of a jewel elsewhere.

Keep on allowing Me to hold you in My hand, turning you over so that you sparkle with the radiance of My love and care and know that the setting I place you in is perfect. There you will lack nothing.

Each of you will be continually enhancing the beauty of the other.

I know the plans and purposes I have for you. Continue yielding yourselves and at the appointedtimes I will bring to pass those plans. Know that until those plans come to pass, you are, right now, where I have purposed. You are in the place I have prepared for you. Rest in Me.

Look at Me fully in the now of your moments. Walk in full assurance of My companionship. The sound of My Voice is what you will hear beyond the silence.

With a humble heart of love, I thank you Jesus for sharing words to encourage our hearts.

Every single one of us go through experiences that cause us to make choices one way or another for God. His Word tells us that each day is one that He has made and that it is a day to rejoice.

He causes each sunset to give way to a new sunrise that brings us fresh opportunities for obedience in areas both small and large. The choice of attitude we adopt is always up to us.

Surrendering to love, surrendering to trust in the Father’s plan and purpose for our lives will give us joy we never dreamed existed!

Obedience borne of love will see us in an attitude of praise, gratitude and trust regardless of our circumstances. We will choose to rejoice. The Word we have hidden in our hearts is to rule our emotions; without questioning the relevance or reasons we are simply to rejoice.

However, when the days in our lives come that threaten to topple the tranquility of the life we enjoy what gives us balance and stabilizes our hearts?

Nothing will stabilize us, bring peace to our souls and quiet our racing hearts but the Word of God that we have hidden in our heart. Hiding the Word in our hearts is a discipline and a choice and it isn’t the easiest and most pleasurable pastime but it works and is effective!

The Word of God will rise to quiet the straying thoughts in our heads that threaten to take us way off course.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad is what the apostle Peter tells us when we face trials and hardships. Our hearts will be able to rejoice when we make the choice to worship our unchanging God of mercy and might, compassion and companionship.

His friendship, His loving touch, His spoken words, His whispered encouragement and comfort all come to mean so much more than anything outside of Him can bring to us.

He is worthy of our praise and adoration, worthy of our worship and exultation regardless and in spite of anything we see in the natural areas of our life.

Repeatedly His word proclaims that He has goodness stored up for those who love and trust Him.

God has such a precious steadfast love for us, He takes great pleasure in the prosperity of His children and we are prosperous when we wait for Him and hope in His mercy and unfailing loving kindness.

The deepest core of our being waits earnestly and expectantly for the Lord for He has promised to be our Help and our Shield. We can rejoice because we are one with Him. But it is hard, so very hard sometimes to wait with patience.

Let us never grow weary in waiting upon Him, for His mercy and loving kindness is upon us in proportion to our waiting and hoping for Him. We can rejoice in our afflictions for it is in the afflictions that we have cause to look for, hope for and wait upon our God.

Today I am calling out for His mercy. I need Him to undertake for us like never before. I have neither strength nor ability to deal with the situation of today. I need Him. I need Him to release a buyer for our home. I need Him to encourage us and show us His mercy by showing us how He has been busying Himself with our every step.

Psalm 37:23 The steps of a righteous man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way and He busies Himself with his every step.

We might lament and say, oh, what if He does not delight in me, what if I am not considered righteous? Read on…

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Saviour who saves! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in silent satisfaction and in His love He will be silent and make no mention of past sins or even recall them; He will exult over you with singing.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake, He made Christ to be sin so that in and through Him we become righteous.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.

2Corinthians 5 establishes for us that we are the ‘good man’, because He has made us to be the righteousness of God in Christ. This is His Word and it is forever settled in heaven. Selah.

Proverbs confirms the Lord is directing our steps, has directed them in the past and continues moment by moment to direct and establish our steps.

And Zephaniah? He confirms the joyous fact that the Lord rejoices over us and delights in us. God is in our midst, loving us, pleased with us.

Jesus lifts up the hem of His garment, rises and dances because of His great joy and love for us!

One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 30:18 – and therefore the Lord earnestly waits, expecting, looking, and longing to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving -kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed, happy fortunate, to be envied are all those who earnestly wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him, for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship. – from the Amplified version

Where do you need a touch from God, what are you believing God for in your days? I pray these words will bless your heart and inspire faith and trust in the One who loves you more than we can ever imagine.